


Forbidden Fruit

by FanficAllergy



Series: Patchwork - 50 Theme Challenge [1]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: District 11, Gen, Pre-Hunger Games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-22
Updated: 2013-07-22
Packaged: 2017-12-20 23:35:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/893210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanficAllergy/pseuds/FanficAllergy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rue learns there are always consequences.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forbidden Fruit

Disclaimer:  The Hunger Games Trilogy is property of Suzanne Collins.   This is a parody fanwork by fans for fans.  No money was made off of the creation of this fanwork.

 

** Patchwork:  Forbidden Fruit **   
_by Fanfic Allergy_

_~*~_

Title:  Forbidden Fruit  
Theme: 01 - Forbidden  
Words:  560  
Summary:  Rue learns there are always consequences.

 

~*~

 

Rue used to wonder why they couldn't eat the food that they grew in the orchards and fields of Eleven.   After all, people were hungry and there was food to be had.  But no one ever tried to eat any of it.   No, instead child after child took out tesserae of substandard grain and oil just on the edge of rancid.   

 

So, late one night after picking peaches, Rue asked her mother why they never saw the food that they worked so hard to produce.  

 

Her mother shot her a furtive look and asked her in a hushed tone, "You didn't snitch anything, did you?"

 

Rue shook her head.  She'd wanted to, the temptation was really great especially later in the day before quitting time, but she'd always resisted and she told her mother that.

 

"You just keep resisting, you don't want to get caught sneaking food from the fields."

 

"Why not?" she'd asked.  

 

Her mother didn't say anything but unbuttoned her dress and pulled the back down.   Criss-crossed all over her mother's back were raised, puckered scars.  "This is why."

 

Rue gasped.  She'd knew that the Peacekeeper overseers carried whips, but she'd never seen any of them wield them.  How did her mother get them and why?   She wanted to ask but wasn't sure if she should.

 

Her mother seemed to understand Rue's confusion and curiosity.  Re-buttoning her dress, she sat down on one of the old rickety chairs to tell her tale.  "I got these when I was a little younger than you.  My mother was dead and my dad was a drunk.  So I went to bed hungry most days.   A few of my neighbors would give me scraps when they had any, which wasn't often.   I lived for the day that I could join the work teams in the fields so I could make even a tiny wage.   When that day finally came, I joined the crews going out to harvest cherries.  It was hot work and you wouldn't believe the bugs.  A lot of the fruit was bruised where a fly or some other larvae ate its way into the flesh.   And I remember thinking, no one in the Capitol would want these.  What was the harm? And I was so very hungry.  So I ate them.  Someone saw me, I don't know who, and reported me.   When I climbed down from the tree with my bucket, the Peacekeepers were waiting for me.   It didn't matter that the cherries weren't good enough for the Capitol, I had eaten them and that was against the rules.   The Head Peacekeeper was kind," her mother's voice related bitterly.  "He only gave me ten lashes rather than the usual fifty for stealing because I was so young."

 

"I don't understand.  If the Capitol didn't want the cherries, why can't we have them?"  Rue was still confused.  If no one wanted the fruit, surely it was okay to eat it. 

 

Her mother sighed.  "I don't know, child.  But I think it's about power, the Capitol's got it and we don't."

 

Later, when after her name was drawn from the big glass bowl for the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games, Rue would think back to her mother's words and realize just like the rotten fruit in the fields the Games were about showing who had power and Rue would know that she didn't. 

_~*~  
_


End file.
